Amber Home Carers

Updated 12 August 2023

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by 3 inspectors.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats.

This service also provides care and support to people living in 9 ‘supported living’ settings, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave a short period notice of the inspection because we needed to be sure that the provider or registered manager would be in the office to support the inspection.

Inspection activity started on 31 July 2023 and ended on 1 August 2023. We visited 2 supported living schemes on 31 July 2023 and the office on 1 August 2023.

What we did before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make.

We looked at all the information we held about the provider, which included the action plan following their last inspection.

During the inspection

We met 4 people who used the service and 3 care workers and the activities coordinator at the supported living schemes. We met the registered manager and other senior staff in the agency's office. We spoke with the relatives of 4 people and 2 external healthcare professionals on the telephone.

We looked at the care records for 5 people, records for 5 members of staff, how medicines were being managed and other records used by the provider for managing the service. These included meeting minutes, audits and other checks.

Updated 12 August 2023

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Amber Home Carers is a care agency providing personal care to people living in their own homes and to people living in supported living schemes. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided.

At the time of our inspection, 40 people were receiving help with personal care in their own homes. Most of these people were older adults. There were also 14 people receiving care and support within 9 supported living services. These people were adults with learning disabilities and autistic people.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support: The service supported people to have maximum possible choice, control and independence. Staff focused on people's strengths. Staff did everything they could to avoid restraining people. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support. Staff supported people to make decisions. Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that achieved the best possible health outcomes.

Right Care: Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Staff and people cooperated to assess risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.

Right culture: People received good quality care, support and treatment because trained staff and specialists could meet their needs and wishes. The service enabled people and those important to them to worked with staff to develop the service. Staff valued and acted upon people’s views. People’s quality of life was enhanced by the service’s culture of improvement and inclusivity.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 6 June 2023).

The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

We carried out an inspection of this service on 2 May 2023. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve safe care and treatment, consent to care and treatment and good governance.

We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the key questions safe, effective and well-led which contain those requirements.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.